Financial Advisor Services Summer Associate

A relative who worked with Dimensional referred me to their hiring department, specifically the HR rep for my school (UT Austin). Normally, they do not recruit students unless they've completed, or are in, their junior year of college. I was a sophomore at the time, so my situation was slightly different. After a few weeks of correspondence with the HR rep, I was brought into their offices, a modern glass building on a beautiful campus just outside of downtown Austin, where they had me chat with associates and analysts in various departments. The idea of this visit was to get a sense of where I wanted to interview with them, either in Financial Advisor Services, Portfolio Management, or for a Data/Research position. After meeting with the entry level employees, who had all gone through the internship and were able to give me pretty valuable insight, I was given a tour of the building, as well as some history and background of the company.

A few months later, the HR department invited me to their company super day, which consisted of 5 or 6 interviews with various employees, both associates and upper management. Starting at 9:30 am, I met with 2 senior associates, 2 vp's, a regional director, and the global head of FAS. Each interview lasted about 30 minutes.

The interviews were relatively informal and non-technical. I didn't have to go through the first round interviews on campus because of my referral route into the process, so I avoided the difficult/technical questions. Also, being a sophomore, I wasn't expected to know as much as the juniors applying for the same position. The interviews were a way to see if I would be a good fit for the company - I was smart and had a good GPA, but none of that matters if you are a poor team player and have a bad attitude.